Review: Movements at Camden Assembly, London

I first heard of Movements earlier this year when a tour announcement peaked my curiosity and so I gave a quick listen to their first full length album Feel Something, released on Fearless Records at the end of last year. I was instantly attracted to their lyrical content and overall sound and decided to make it my mission to attend the London date of their first ever international headlining tour, a sold-out show at the Camden Assembly.

Muskets opened the show as the room started to fill up throughout their set and they sent out a nice vibe that had people nodding their heads along to their music. Next up were Paerish who belted out their songs to the ever growing crowd, warming us up nicely for the main act with their own unique style and flare.

Then the moment we were waiting for… Movements came out to get ready to play, kicking straight in with ‘Full Circle’ off of their full length, as Patrick Miranda (vocals) commanded the crowd to “get the fuck up here, bring it in!” to which they obliged and there was a surge forward. Immediately the hyped up audience erupted with crowd surfers and I knew straight away I was in for a lively set.

They kept the momentum going, playing ‘Under the Gun’ with an infectious enthusiasm which transferred to the audience and then asking if “we can pick it up a little bit” before announcing that now they were going to play an old song, going in hard with ‘Worst Wishes’ to the sound of cheers.

If you didn’t already know, Movements music is a mix of post-hardcore, emo and spoken word. Their next track that evening, ‘Nineteen’, is a wonderful example of how spoken word enhances their lyrically driven material and I was delighted to hear it live for the first time.

Miranda, who is a natural frontman, was sure to thank the opening acts as expected and gushed as he told us how amazing Muskets had been throughout the tour, dedicating the next song ‘Colorblind’ to them.

There was no shortage of fan favourites in this set, perhaps because they only have two records and a handful of other songs to choose from so the next song they played was no exemption. It’s the song that Miranda has previously said he has more people tell him they can relate to than any other song, ‘Deadly Dull’. It is a personal one, about Alzheimer’s disease, and it seemed every person in the room knew the words to it as they sung their hearts out.

At this point in the show the flow of fans crowd surfing onto the stage was heavy and steady, so Miranda took a minute to say that whilst the band were all for crowd surfing and stage diving could they “please be careful of the cables on either side”.

By the time Movement’s set reached the sad moment when they explained there were only three more songs left, the room was electric and I for one did not want it to end. As the excited buzz of the room grew so did a huge circle pit, opening up to be nearly the size of the whole room.

Suddenly out of nowhere, or more precisely from the die hard fans up front, a chant started for the band to play ‘Protection’ and as it grew louder and louder Miranda turned to each of the band members Ira George (guitar), Austin Cressey (bass) and Spencer York (drums) to ask if they wanted to and there was a consensus that they should. Those of us with a keen ear noticed that in the second chorus instead of singing “I overthink too much”, Miranda sang “I fucking hate this song!” much to our amusement and afterwards he explained that was in fact the first song they ever wrote.

For the finale of this short but very sweet set Movements asked for the crowd to turn on their phone torches, to which they did though one or two raised a lighter, and they played ‘Daylily’, a beautiful song. A handful of people took it as a hint to climb onto their friends shoulders and we all sang along in unison.

All in all it was a very good show, I was blown away by the performance of this fairly new band as well as their professionalism and willingness to please their fans, so I was not surprised that they stuck around at the end to meet and greet the people who had come to see them play. If you ever get the chance to see them in the future I suggest you grab it with both hands because these boys are going places and you’ll want to be along for the journey.